Letters To The Editor

June 10, 2002

Agonizing decision: prom or game?

I am a sophomore on the Gloucester High School girl's varsity soccer team. The June 1 article by Jennifer L. Williams, "Gloucester's mind is not on soccer," was a simplistic and catty put-down of a classy and unified team and is a poor representation of the spirit and morality of the team members.

The story said, "Seven Gloucester players missed the game in favor of pre-prom primping." However, we seven players were given the choice, and it was an agonizing decision.

Coach Daniel gave us a choice and told us he understood how special prom was and that he would not base any judgment of his players on their attendance at either the game Friday or the prom. I appreciate his courage in allowing us to decide for ourselves as adults on what to do.

As a matter of fact, he did his best to ease our tension by attempting to move the game to 1 p.m. and bringing up his best junior varsity players.

I also resent how you cited two of our players for attending the game even though they would not be "as well-coifed as the others at Gloucester High's prom Friday night." That did not give a very realistic impression of our team.

We have not accomplished so much entirely because of skill, but because we are also a great group of young ladies who devoted hours of our time to practicing and growing with each other.

Before stating we "finished the season with a whimper at 16-2-1," remember we played the beginning of this season with six injuries, including the Kecoughtan and Menchville games.

We only learned of our Friday Regional game and began preparing two weeks before. However, we committed to and began preparing for our proms over two months ago. In order to attend the re-scheduled regional game, any preparation and all pre-prom customs would've been sacrificed.

It's mighty easy to second-guess a difficult decision. All of us love soccer and living, yet sometimes we must make a choice between a sport and prior commitments we've made.

Julia Foard

Sophomore

Gloucester High School

Terrorist fiction

Reference the June 3 letter "Terror from within," by Rose Durham.

Hatred is the key element within the "philosophy" of terrorism. Within these groups, hatred is not only planted, but also nurtured and ripened into deadly fruits. Understand this, bin Laden and others like him deeply hate America and her people.

The letter never indicts a person or group as a terrorist faction, but this reader assumed that abortion providers were the targeted parties. Abortion providers hate children, is the necessary end to the writer's logic. Is this really the case? I contend that these are law-abiding Americans performing an act endorsed by law.

Now, I personally disagree with abortion rights from a spiritual and Constitutional foundation. Nevertheless, providers are not terrorists.

What is a terrorist? A person that hates the core of Western Civilization or someone that is performing a legal act?

Simply because I disagree with contrasting views does not mean I will hate them or call them a terrorist.

The ambiguity of the English language is often a tapestry for great fiction, but never the description of the individual's intent. To use language for such self-serving purposes is often dangerous. Calling my fellow Americans terrorists will not stand.

Christopher A. Hylton

Newport News

Too much testing

I take exception to the May 30 editorial "SOLs, yet again." Essentially, the Daily Press states that these Standards of Learning are being diluted down and will not be the standards that they were. The Standards of Learning were not much to begin with and are reducing the learning that would have taken place had they not been put into place.

Consider if you will the time lost from learning and teaching since the SOLs began. We spend 10 reduced days out of the year just giving the tests. We lost about 30 hours of instruction when the block system was introduced concurrently. But since SOLs are so important, we also have to have a couple of practice tests in each class to prepare for the SOL tests. When thrown in with the tests that the teachers already give for the few chapters that we have time to cover, I'm of the belief that the SOLs are reducing the amount of the learning.

You can spend too much time testing. But also, take into account that we give the SOL exams a month or more before the end of the school year. With the hype that we've all given these tests, and with them now over, picture trying to spend the rest of the school year getting students ready for their regular exams.

We spend nine or 10 full days per year giving regular exams. We only need one set of second-semester exams that should be conducted at the end of the year. Tax dollars and learning is going down the sewer.

The new governor should not waste his time modifying the loathsome SOLs. He needs to abandon them and start over again maximizing instructional time.